Having registered 450 cases of power theft over the past one week, power distribution company BSES is now planning a crackdown in select areas of South and West Delhi. The enforcement drive, aimed at reducing instances of power thefts substantially, will last till March 31, a BSES official said.

BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) CEO Gopal Saxena said a sharp and sudden increase in power theft cases was witnessed with the onset of the unusually cold weather.

"In some areas, this leads to severe over-loading in the distribution system — transformers and feeders — resulting in power failures and is also a potential safety hazard," he said.

According to BRPL, over 2,000 KW of power is lost to theft alone. The BSES has registered 450 cases in the first week of the month "for illegally drawing power through unauthorised connections in South and West Delhi".

These cases were reported from 26 different areas falling in South and West Delhi, a BRPL spokesperson said.

The enforcement drive would continue till March 31, he said.

The discom plans to conduct over 200 mass raids in the next two and half months.

"A total of over 100 areas are being targeted across South and West Delhi. Around 30 cases of power thefts were registered and a theft of nearly 150 KW was unearthed on a single day when Delhi's temperature plummeted to its lowest of the season of 1.9 degree Celsius," the official said.

He said since July 2002, BRPL had unearthed around 1.32 lakh cases and unearthed power theft load of over 7.65 lakh KW.

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